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JennifHsieh is a space for my rambling thoughts and snaps of my everyday style. I'm based in Astoria, Queens and I share a home with my two derpy cats and my equally derpy fiancé.

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The Japan Diaries: From Shinjuku to Shibuya

April 24, 2017

Now that I've adjusted back to the east coast time zone, I'm finally getting around to sorting through and editing all of my thousands of photos of my trip to Japan. It's still hard to wrap my head around the fact that I was there, since so much of it seems so surreal.

The first half of our trip consisted of four days in Tokyo. To save on the expensive costs of hotels in the city, the three of us (Jeremy, myself, and our friend Dennis) decided to split an Airbnb in the heart of Shinjuku. Taking advantage of our relatively central location, we decided to spend our first day making the walk from Shinjuku, to Harajuku, to Shibuya, and eventually down to Ebisu.

One of my favorite stops along our trek was the peaceful walk through the Meiji Jingu Forest to reach Meiji Jingu temple, which is where the photos above were taken. When it comes to city parks, I've found myself growing quite tired of Central Park which is usually overcrowded and full of tourists. While there are pockets of quiet in the early Central Park mornings, there's an entirely different sense of peace in Meiji Jingu Forest. Meiji Jingu Forest is a 150-year long project where thousands of volunteers are working to plant around 100,000 trees of 365 different species donated from all over Japan. Deities are believed to come down to earth from the tops of tall trees so these shrine forests are built to offer them respect and every single tree, down to their individual leaves, is treated with a level of respect that you don't find in western culture's relationship with nature.

Jeremy and I are currently working on a post documenting this entire day-long trek on our travel blog, & Away We Went, so stay tuned!

P.S. Never break in a new pair of suede mules on a rainy day that involves walking over 10 miles. Feet = Still broken.

Hi Jen! It has been very long time since the last I came to your blog, and you got a nice blog layout!

Anyway, Japan is gorgeous, isn't it? I would love to go back too next time. Anyway, I heard my blogger friend she stayed in nice apartment at Ebisu area via Airbnb. The neighborhood is quiet and beautiful!